Google Music or Play Music depending on what you want to call it, has been available since November of last year and has went on to sport Millions of users with Millions of songs uploaded. The service is still in beta meaning it’s free for users, at least for now. As an Android user, it’s a much easier experience when purchasing music as doing so has purchases appear directly in the app and on your account.
Today, Google Music has received a very big UI update which it has needed. This brings it up in terms of quality for newer devices and/or Android 4.1 Jelly Bean smartphones and tablets. According to Android Central, the new UI has a Google+ app feel to it. Not familiar with the Google+ app? Lets just say it’s nice.
On to the changes…
- Now Playing widget has album art and thumbs up support.
- Now Playing allows for reordering and queuing currently playing music.
- Playlist art now constructed from songs’ album art in the playlist.
- New navigation UI with controls on the action bar.
- Smoother and faster navigation.
- Large album art view under Recent.
Google Music never was one of Google’s greatly designed products, but with these changes, it’s definitely getting there. At the end of the day, good design is, well, good, but having an app run smoother and faster is important as well. If you’ve got your own music collection and aren’t using Google Music, now is definitely the time to try it out.